Welcome to Love Mondays, a weekly newsletter designed as a 3-minute hit to fire up the other 10,077 minutes of your week.

During Covid, many people met their inner introvert for the first time. Friends told me, “I have lived such an extroverted life, but now I realise how anxious it made me being so ‘on’ all the time”. Much as the world has been designed for men, leadership has been designed for extraverts. And just as we need more introverts to step up and lead, we each need to pay attention to the value of quiet time.

How do you recharge? When you’re around other people or when you’re alone?

Write it down.

Consider: how could your weekly schedule create the space and time to recharge in the way you need?

Practice: checking with others how they prefer to balance social catchups or work meetings, with taking time for themselves

Decide to: review and reset the norms this year, so all members of your family or team are empowered to establish a collective a rhythm

The Quiet Revolution

A few years ago I interviewed Susan Cain, author of ‘Quiet: The Power of Introverts in A World That Can’t Stop Talking’. She discussed the balancing act needed to accommodate both introverts and extroverts in the workplace. As we return, it’s worth reflecting that neurobiologically, introverts and extroverts are wired differently. “Introverts have nervous systems that react more to all the different stimuli that are coming in, and extroverts' nervous systems react less,” Cain says. While shyness is the fear of social disapproval… introversion is a preference for events that are not over-stimulating.

Approximately one-third to one-half of us are introverts to some degree, it’s a matter of where we fall on the introvert-extrovert scale. So, how can we help ourselves and others physically get into that state of equilibrium that enables the good work to begin? Cain offers a range of resources on her website for teams looking to work inclusively. Worth a (quiet) look here.

Thank you to everyone who’s joined our now 18,000+ strong community of Easy Tiger and Love Mondays readers. We appreciate your readership. If you’d like to help us spread the word, why not share Love Mondays with a friend?

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